Carolyn Clayton is the co-founder of the Walkaway House, where, with her partner Benjamin Westbrook, she lives, works, and operates the Tend and Center of Gravity artist residencies. In addition to being their home, the Walkaway House provides physical space and opportunities for visiting artists, overnight guests and the local arts community to make meaningful work and connections in downtown North Adams, MA.
Clayton uses the framework of her 1850’s historic home and the facilitation of an artist residency within its walls as a social practice from which to consider the melding and overlap of art and life. Through this lens she makes installations, participatory systems, and sculptural displays. Her work examines the allure of cleanliness and order in contrast to the human drive to accumulate, hold close and imbue objects with meaning. She received her MFA from University of Michigan in 2016 (with a certificate in Museum Studies) and her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009. She was awarded the Dedalus Foundation MFA Fellowship in sculpture in 2016 and a National Arts Strategy Creative Community Fellowship in 2018, where she began to develop the concept for the Walkaway House.